April 2017 Opinion Archives

​​An Editorial

The Sexism Students Face

By: Zeniya Cooley​As young adults, high school students are occasionally subjected to sexism by their classmates or strangers. From being cat-called to experiencing other forms of harassment, many teenagers in schools nation and world-wide are introduced to the ugly reality of sexism. It’s an unfortunate truth that females and males have to go through such things on a sporadic, or even regular, basis.​I interviewed about 15 male and female students at Crestwood and asked them how frequently they experience characteristics of sexism - cat-calling or verbal harassment, interruptions by the opposite sex because of the other feeling that her or his opinion was more important or valid, being touched in an inappropriate manner without permission, and/or being called derogatory names for having many girlfriends or boyfriends. I gave four options: often, sometimes, rarely, and never.

For the first question, 25% of the girls said they “often” experienced cat-calling or verbal harassment, 25% said “sometimes,” 33.3% said “rarely,” and 16.6% said “never”; 8.3% of the guys said “often,” 50% said “sometimes,” 0% said “rarely,” and 41.6% said “never.” For the second question, 50% of the girls replied they were “often” interrupted, 25% said “sometimes,” 16.6% said “rarely,” and 8.3% said “never”; 33.3% of boys said “often,” 16.6% said “sometimes,” 0% said “rarely,” and 50% said “never.” For the third question, 8.3% of the ladies said they are “often” touched, 33.3% said “sometimes,” 33.3% said “rarely,” and 25% said “never”; 8.3% of the boys said “often,” 50% said “sometimes,” 8.3% said “rarely,” and 33.3% said “never.” Finally, 25% of the girls said they were “often” called disrespectful names, 0% said “sometimes,” 33.3% said “rarely,” and 41.6% said “never”; 25% of the boys said “often,” 25% said “sometimes,” 8.3% said “rarely,” and 41.6% said “never.”

I expected the girls to respond that they frequently experience sexism, but I was stunned to see that boys also go through it. The results show that teenagers are subjected to this disrespectful treatment on a regular or sporadic basis, and that is disappointing. Hopefully, times will change, but in the meantime sexism is something that students, and average individuals, face.